Bridge of Sighs
by Sahara Hyuuga
Summary: A promise of return. For all my Megumi's Son's faithful readers.


I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.

**A/N: **This was inspired by Thomas Hood's Bridge of Sighs, obviously I used the same title and took excerpts from the poem, which I wrote in italics. Another inspiration was the classical of Edvard Grieg's _Solveig's Song (from the musical play Peer Gynt)._ This was played by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Be aware that I used Greek deities to represent period/time of occurrences.

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_One more unfortunate_

_Weary of breath_

_Rashly importunate _

_Gone to her death._

I felt a cold draft of night air brushed against my nape, sending shivers down my spine. In this wee hours of morning, while everyone else were under the spell of the god Hypnos, I am a solitary figure over the familiar, legendary bridge.

Over the years, I have witnessed how this humble structure which became a part of my daily routine, had turned from simple wooden slabs into a proud piece of architecture, arching like a human body over the peaceful silver waters.

The place hasn't change much over the passing of age. Sakuras still stood beautifully aligned along perfectly green riverbanks. They may not be as dazzling as those witnessed at Kyoto during the season but sakuras will always be sakuras, breathtakingly lovely. The unique blend of nature and modern architecture of this humble, yet, famous site, only heightened the curiosity of eager tourists.

After a long time of idly watching the waters carry along fallen pink petals, reminiscing something that somehow I couldn't figure, my thoughts drifted to a certain tale of tragic love that have, accordingly, ended in this bridge and how the story had became associated to its fame. A tale that had been passed on for generations through narrative tongues of old wives and maids.

The tale was about a young woman who ended her misery at this very site. It was said that the river had always been calm and pure until she threw herself in its depth. Eos' silence and the pacific surface of the waters didn't helped at all to call anyone's attention as she sank slowly, embraced by the cold idle current, just like the way she wallowed at her desolation. Her body was found by her friends at the first stroke of the powerful hooves of Helios' horses.

_Take her up tenderly,_

_Lift her with care;_

_Fashion'd so slenderly,_

_Young, and so fair!_

Since then, the village people looked at the river with hateful, if not fearful, eyes. As if life had ceased to exist in that rich body of water. The once beloved argentine body had soon became troubled, treacherous and poisonous for those who were _bestowed_ with judgmental eyes. And not long after, talks of a mysterious, eerie sound of weeping heard around the bridge during Eos' time, had became a rumor among the townspeople.

_A fact or a mere legend?_

I won't comment on that. Everyone knows that every famed place or structure had an accompanying enchanting tales of its own. But I can't help wonder. If the poor woman had suffered that much because of the unfaithful lover, what had became of the other? If the tale was as tragic as it implied itself to be, should it end unfairly? Shouldn't it follow the well-known classic tragedies?

Old folks said that the unfaithful young man returned regretful and too late. In her memory, he initiated the building of this famous structure. And under this concrete steps can be found the notable epitaph,

_"Here lies the memory of a dearly beloved whose sorrows and tears became one with Acheron's flow."_

_Look at her garments, _

_Clinging like cerements;_

_Whilst the wave constantly_

_Drips from clothing;_

_Take her up instantly, loving, not loathing._

_A fact or a mere legend?_

That a woman committed suicide on this very bridge, where I'm currently hovering, was a fact. That her beloved became unfaithful and left was false. Contrary to what had been passed on this generation of ignorant believers, the woman's man had remained faithful to the very end. Whilst this tale followed the typical classic tragedies, that her lover came back to build the artisitc man-made wonder in her memory was falsely made lines to suffice an ending of a tragic love story.

Her beloved left without returning and her anguish turned to despair and finally into darkness.

_Touch her not scornfully. _

_Think of her mournfully,_

_Gently and humanly;_

_Not of the stains of her_

_Now is pure womanly._

A century ago, the man left for the Americas as summoned by the government, but not without imprinting into her heart a promise of return. A solemn vow on Styx. Three years were covered with written words of love that had crossed oceans until the long wait was due.

He had taken a long delay. Yet, she waited. She waited with all the patience her heart could muster, even when his letters stopped coming, even if hers were sent unanswered until another year almost ended without even a shadow of him.

One autumn day, as Fate had decreed, the time finally came for her to discover that the ship that was supposed to bring her love back had never docked a land at all. It sank at the malevolent waters of the Pacific.

The earth had completed a single revolution with her drowning in misery. One autumn night, while Artemis was on the peak of her hunting, when her spell was just too much, over her beloved bridge - the place where the gap between them had been linked and closed, where their love blossomed, where he made his vow to return - she decided to end her lamentation.

"I never had any second thoughts to end my life so many times in the past, but each time, you were there to stop me. Someone came to change my outlook on the kind of life I had. I thought then that his light had vanquished the darkness you brought into my life. But you came again, replacing the dark memories with a new light, a new direction for my castaway heart. There will be no one else, no one else I would give my heart completely more than I gave it to you. This way, at this point, I will be one with you, my love."

_Make no deep scrutiny_

_Into her mutiny_

_Rash and undutiful;_

_Past all dishonor,_

_Death has left on her_

_Only the beautiful._

And while everyone thought that the tragedy ended with her decisive act, a century of solitude and agony had just began.

The woman standing on the bridge, clad in lavender kimono, hugged herself as a comforting breeze seized her thoughts away from a century of past memories. Long raven hair flowed along Aeolus' loving blow.

"A hundred years of waiting is over." A deep voice was heard from behind. It was whispered, meant only for her. "I'm here."

She made no move to see who had just spoke, trying so hard to keep her tears from falling, swallowing the hard lump in her throat that left her speechless and short of breath. _That beloved voic_e.

She cleared her eyes from another falling tears and mustered her courage to at least acknowledge his presence. But all she could mutter was a croaked, "What took you so long?"

"You," came the reply, almost swallowed by another gentle blow of breeze, hugging her now vulnerable body.

Confused, she turned to face the entity that had spoken to her in her solitude. The moment froze, Time stopped as her eyes locked with the familiar orbs of the ocean. Same blue eyes that looked through hers a million times before, piercing through, extinguishing the fire within her as she melted the ice within him.

"Why?"

The shadow came closer to her. With a barely controlled bitter sigh, he supplied.

"I've tried to live for you. Just when I finally able to grasped my memory of you, I found I've lost you. I can't live my life without you. I needed to find you, I needed to be with you. And now…."

Unshed tears of his entire mortal life had finally streamed freely down his high cheekbones.

Wide-eyed and breathless of what she just discovered, she let out an ear-piercing wail of remorse. _If only she had waited, waited long enough. _She ended her mortal suffering only to be damped into the same eternity of arduous solitary waiting.

Hard callused hands took her own from her face, which she used to mute her sobbing. Gently, he allowed her to caress his face, letting her trace the dampness of his own tears.

"Forgive me, my love." Looking in his eyes, she expected the usual cold ocean staring back at her. All she saw was a heart-wrenching pain reflected in the eyes that sorrowfully answered her own brown ones.

Gone were the distant ice blue she was used to looked at to with her own sharp ones, from which she had often elicited a spark. A spark that he would then hide by shutting his eyes close. She knew those eyes too well.

Now, set deep within the long lashed eyes were the sad reflection of her own.

"It doesn't matter anymore." He wrapped her in an embrace that clearly manifested all the years of longing to be with her again. His lips burned on her forehead.

"But if we're only given- "

"What mattered was you waited as you'd promised."

"And you returned to me, as promised."

"Rather late."

"The pain is worth."

He tightened his arms around her and she melted, resting her head in his chest, trying to possibly hear what she used to hear deep down inside him. The rhythm of his heart that only her own can danced with. No one else could. There was nothing anymore. And yet….

"I've searched every corners of the world for you, Megumi."

"I was here, only here, night and day, year after year, waiting. Only here, with you, Aoshi, my love."

She pressed her palm flat to where his human heart was supposed to reside.

Finally, they sighed in unison. A fulfillment was reached. A promise kept. They are meant to be together for eternity.

And somewhere, at the foot of the bridge, a middle-aged man with brown eyes, stood oblivious of the two ethereal bodies fluttering over the cemented steps of his families' design. The bridge was his father's design, a concrete manifestation of his devotion for the only woman he loved in his lifetime. The said man, who was tracing long callused fingers on the cold cement, had never and could never hate a father whose only flaw was that he loved a woman more than he loved the mother of his son. He sighed as he whispered a very familiar beloved line that had been repeated over and over by the old man's dying breath.

_"Here lies the memory of a dearly beloved whose sorrows and tears became one with Acheron's flow."_

"Father, I'm here already. I see now how much you loved her. And I honor you for that."

He sighed again watching Aurora slowly turning her back away from the earth's surface but not without a promise to return.

_Hypnos - Greek god of sleep_

_Eos - greek goddess of dawn_

_Helios - greek god of sun_

_Acheron - one of the five rivers that flows to Hades; the river of lamentation._

_Styx - a titan woman of greek mythology to whom gods made their oaths solemn and unbreakable._

_Artemis - greek goddes of darkness (that pertaims night) and hunting._

_Aurora - Roman counterpart of Eos._

If you're wondering who that middle-aged man, review and I'll supply the answer. LOL

To my faithful Megumi's Son's readers, here, I put this one up so that you will not be mad at me while I take my leave. This one should justify why I want so much to take advantage of my cousin's help. I'm glad of this outcome. This ficcie had been sleeping for quite a while in my brain. But with my cousin's nagging me the whole day to write it down, I finished it in less than a couple of hours. Wheew! Review please...


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